How best to upgrade? (Yes another one of these)

[Athas]

My current computer will be turning two years old soon and I'm looking to get it to play XIV and SC:II on max settings or nearly so. I should have a budget between two thousand and fifteen hundred and wondering how best to spend the money. At present my comp looks something like:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 CPU
Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM
Sapphire 4850 512MB
Western Digital 750GB SATA3 HD
ASUS Rampage MOBO
AC Freezer 7 Pro
Corsair 750W PS
Antec 900 case

Was thinking of getting a 950 i7, 8GB more RAM and either a 5850 or 5970 depending on how much I have left to spend.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115211

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145313

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102887
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102889

I've heard some newer graphics cards don't fit in the mid tower sized Antec, true? And is there anything on the horizon in terms of CPUs worth holding out for? Any advice is appreciated.

[Ezek]

I would definitely get a full tower if you ever plan on utilizing Crossfire or SLI with current gen video cards. Things are fucking huge. Any of the Lian-Li ATX full towers are excellent (and expensive). The Antect 1200 is also a really good case too with a good amount of room + good airflow.

Edit: Depending on your audio setup and how much $$ you have left over, I'd also highly recommend picking up either a Xonar Essence ST/STX (godlike for headphones) or DX. I recently upgraded from my old $30 SB Audigy 2 SE to an Essence ST (my setup is an Audioengine A5 with the S8 sub) and the sound difference is unbelievable.

[Knyghtmayre]

Well, 460s are pretty tiny in comparison to other Fermis and 5850/70+s, but they're an exception to a lot of rules lately. I could just barely fit a 5850 in my Storm Scout (mid tower), had about .25 inches of clearance and had to swap HDD to another bay, so it's possible that it might be very cramped. The HAF 932 is also a pretty sexy case that most people look over, it runs probably the coolest of most of the full towers, and it's $140 with free shipping.

[Olo401]

Whoa how're you running DDR3 on a E8600? Tell meeeee!!

And don't get the i7-950.. Just get the 930. $250 for a multiplier increase is ridiculous.

[virusiidx]

There's some rumors that the 950 should drop to $300 at the end of the August. Seems like August 29th according to Google search results. Don't take my word on it though, not sure how true this is or if those are legitimate sources. Just thought I'd mention it.

[SubzeroDiabolos]

HAF 932

30 pounds just the case alone, looooollllllllllllllllll. (I know full sized towers aren't made to move around, I just find it funny.)

[Athas]

And don't get the i7-950.. Just get the 930. $250 for a multiplier increase is ridiculous.

Hmm, what about the 970 then? Hex-core worth the money?

I would definitely get a full tower if you ever plan on utilizing Crossfire or SLI with current gen video cards.

And I never thought throwing in more then one GPU was worth it unless you were into like big time video/graphic editing?

[Wulfgang]

i7 930 and a 5850 can run FFFXIV fine. SC2 can run at max settings with less. If you overclock the 930 (which is stupidly easy), you'll have more than enough performance for anything it sounds like you want to do. Check out the combo deals on Newegg as I saved ~$120 through them. I ended up with an i7 930, ATI 5870 setup for ~$1900; would have been a lot less if I didn't go for a nice Intel X-25M SSD and need a monitor / Win7 / Microsoft Office.

[Dmitry]

I could run SC2 on max settings with my 4860

[Olo401]

Hmm, what about the 970 then? Hex-core worth the money?

I don't think it is.. for $100 more you can get the 980x which comes with a higher base clock, unlocked multipliers and a really decent heatsink, so why not just spend the extra money? And then you also have AMD's hex-cores, which are much more reasonably priced in the $300 range. The 970 is in a really bad spot, and that probably won't change until they drop the price to about $400.